Banks and other lending institutions commonly include a section within the bank vault which contain safety deposit boxes. These boxes are normally rented to customers as an ancillary service. The customer will maintain a key which will open the deposit box independently or in certain cases, in conjunction with a key maintained in the possesion of the bank personnel. Access to the entrance of the area in which the safety deposit boxes are contained within the bank vault is gained through the bank during normal business hours, and therefore access to the contents of the safety deposit box is limited. Moreover, the demand for safety deposit boxes substantially exceeds the supply and often a customer must wait for a year or longer to receive the right to rent a box. This demand for safety deposit boxes is partially due to a desire of people to place certain valuables such as jewelry, silverware, wills or the like at a location which is not exposed to fire or theft.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a self-contained vault unit for containing a plurality of safety deposit boxes. The vault unit is designed to be an independent structure and capable of being operated in a secure manner with minimal manpower. Another object of the present invention is to provide a self-contained vault unit which can be readily constructed in a relatively inexpensive manner and which is energy efficient and operable with low overhead. A further object of the invention is to provide a safety deposit box vault unit which provides convenient, yet restricted access to the deposit box vault chamber which contains the deposit boxes and which provides inspecting booths at preselected and convenient locations for the customers. Still, a further object of the invention is to provide a self-contained vault unit which efficiently utilizes the space available within the vault chamber while providing ready access and free mobility to authorized customers.